My Asian style chicken recipe has been requested by a few friends and it’s taken me a little while to write it down. It looks complicated, but it’s actually quite easy and highly recommended. You can make the spice mix in advance, there will be enough spice mix to repeat this recipe a few times.
I make the chicken in the slow cooker, as it keeps the chicken incredibly juicy. You can do it in the oven if you don’t have a slow cooker (following the cooking guidelines of your chicken), but the chicken is likely to absorb less of the flavour and lack the succulence of the slow cooked version.
Serves 4
Spice Mix
15g Star Anise
15g Fennel Seeds
12g Coriander Seeds
5g Szechuan Pepper
15 Cloves
10g Cinnamon Sticks
15g Soft Brown Sugar
10g Sea Salt
5g Whole Black Peppercorns
Chicken
1 Large Chicken
1 tsp Coarse Sea Salt
3 tbsp Spice Mix
1 Satsuma
50ml Light Soy Sauce
50ml Dark Soy Sauce
125ml Water
3cm Piece of ginger
3 Shallots
Noodles
4 Nests of Fine Egg Noodles
1 tsp Tamarind Paste
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Sticks Lemon Grass
2 Kaffir Lime Leaves
Juice of 1 lime
1cm Piece of ginger
1tsp Palm sugar
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Red Pepper
125g Mange Tout
125g Baby Corn
Small Bunch of Coriander, roughly chopped
75g Salted Cashew Nuts, roughly chopped
1 Spring Onion, finely chopped
The Chicken
- Prepare the spice mix by putting all ingredients in a food processor. I use my Nutri Bullet nut pulser, which grinds it perfectly. Transfer the spice mix into a container, you should have enough to make this chicken recipe a few times
- Rub the chicken with 1 teaspoon sea salt and 3 tablespoons of spice mix. Ensure that the chicken is liberally coated.
- Pierce the satsuma several times and place inside the chicken
- Pour the Light and Dark Soy Sauce into the Slow Cooker, along with the water, sliced ginger and chopped shallots, then place the chicken in the slow cooker
- I cook my chicken on the higher setting for 4 hours (depending on size of chicken), if you are planning to put your chicken in the slow cooker in the morning for your dinner, then use the low setting for the increased cooking time (6-7 hours).
- Preheat oven to 220°C Once the chicken is cooked, liberally baste chicken with sauce from the slow cooker and place it on a baking tray in the oven for around 20 minutes. The chicken is already cooked, this is to crisp the skin, so it’s important to have the oven hot and not to leave the chicken in the oven too long. You are likely to need two large spatulas to lift the chicken because it may fall apart when you lift it.
- Transfer the juices from the bottom of the slow cooker into a saucepan and cook on medium heat until the sauce thickens and has reduced by half. Take care not to boil or overcook this sauce as it will split.
The Noodles
- Place the tamarind sauce, fish sauce, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, ginger and palm sugar in a blender to make a paste. If I cannot find kaffir lime leaves, I use the zest of 1 lime.
- Bring a pan of water to boil and place 4 nests of egg noodles and cook for 3 minutes and drain.
- In a frying pan, add the sesame oil and lightly stir fry the vegetables in the paste for 2 to 3 minutes and then mix in the cooked noodles.
When you remove the chicken from the oven, you can leave it to rest for a few minutes whilst preparing the noodles. The chicken should slide off the bone, so remove deboned pieces of chicken to serve on top of the noodles.
Place the noodles on the plate with pieces of chicken on top. Sprinkle with roughly chopped cashew nuts, coriander and spring onions and lightly drizzle the stock pot reduction over the chicken and the noodles.
For a lower carb version of this recipe, I replace the noodles with spiralled courgettes, omit the palm sugar and avoid eating the chicken skin.
I keep all the chicken bones and return them to the slow cooker along with 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, 1 garlic clove, 1 leek, 2 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme and 1 litre of water to cook on the low heat overnight. This makes a wonderful, slightly spiced chicken stock, perfect for fragrant Thai soups or spiced dishes.
I usually keep any leftover chicken for the next day to make a quick and easy Thai coconut soup using this chicken stock. That one coming soon!
